NFL must suspend Eli 'the Cheat' Manning for the 2017-2018 season if faked helmet charges are true

Eli the Cheat...Giants fan Michael Jakab thought he may have been cheated out of the $4500 value of a 'game used' Eli Manning helmet when he noticed the helmet was missing the Velcro used to hold its radio receiver. And now? 'Proof' that Eli cheated - in the form of a back and forth set of emails between Manning and a Giants team manager. The two-time Super Bowl MVP, who has a contract with memorabilia dealer Steiner Sports, instructed the manager to get the bogus equipment so it could be sold off as authentic, court documents obtained by The Post say.

“2 helmets that can pass as game used. That is it. Eli,” Manning wrote to equipment manager Joe Skiba from a BlackBerry on April 27, 2010, according to the documents.

Less than 20 minutes later, Manning wrote to his marketing agent, Alan Zucker, who requested the helmets, saying: “Should be able to get them for tomorrow.”

The emails were filed Tuesday in New Jersey’s Bergen County Superior Court by three memorabilia collectors who are pressing a civil racketeering suit against the Giants, Manning, Skiba, Steiner and others, including team co-owner and CEO John Mara.

The legal filing also alleges that Big Blue failed to produce the Manning-Skiba emails — between the athlete’s old-school AOL account and an official NFL account — even though “they claim to have no document destruction policy.”

“Since it appears that the Giants failed to preserve any emails between Manning and Joe Skiba, and the Giants are keeping Skiba on the payroll and paying his substantial legal bills, the above email exchange may be the only direct evidence that Manning knowingly gave fraudulent helmets to Steiner for sale to fans,” court papers say.

On Thursday, plaintiffs’ lawyer Brian Brook said “it appears to be the case that someone at the Giants organization deleted” those emails, as well as another, previously disclosed 2008 exchange.

In that exchange, Skiba allegedly admitted to plaintiff Eric Inselberg that Manning had asked him to create “BS” versions of a game-used helmet and jersey because Manning “didnt want to give up the real stuff.”

“The first we have since Eric saved it on his AOL account and the second we have since Eli apparently saved it on his AOL account,” Brook said.

Bogus sports memorabilia? No way! That business is built on the Big Four: love of sports, trust, integrity and forgery! That, and enough “certificates of authenticity” to stuff one of Babe Ruth’s polyester game-worn uniforms!

Thursday morning on WFAN and the CBS Sports Network, Craig Carton, who has made it clear he finds WFAN colleague Mike Francesa’s act loathsome, imitated it.

At the top, he addressed the Eli Manning bogus memorabilia lawsuit story as a legitimate one, a serious matter. He even asked Giants co-owner Bob Tisch about it. Tisch declined comment. Carton called it a “scandal” that everyone allegedly involved should have to answer to.

He then added he’d bring it up to Archie Manning, Eli’s dad and a scheduled guest, later in the show.

Ah, but when Archie came on, Carton’s obsequious, Eddie Haskell side kicked in. He immediately told Archie the fake Eli memorabilia story is “nonsense.”

How was Carton able to know this, so much so that he reported it on the air to a national audience and directly to Eli’s father? He didn’t say. How did his take on the story, in the course of one show, do a 180? He didn’t say.

In a statement, lawyers for the Giants said: “The email, taken out of context, was shared with the media by an unscrupulous memorabilia dealer and his counsel who for years has been seeking to leverage a big payday.”

“The email predates any litigation, and there was no legal obligation to store it on the Giants server,” the statement added.

“Eli Manning is well known for his integrity and this is just the latest misguided attempt to defame his character."

Really? Out of context? Why not provide the next email then to, you know, put it in context?